Adventures in life, literature and (the City of Brotherly) love

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I’m sorry for last week—for getting you all excited about my return to “regular” posting only to leaving you hanging with a single, solitary, charming-but-rather-daft post about shower curtains. The thing is I have this friend. And three months ago she met this guy on the internet (Plenty of Fish of all places…) and now…

I have found the secret to true happiness. Forget about friendship or love or building an enjoyable life. Really, it all comes down to shower curtains. Seriously. As most of you know, I am furnishing my house on a very strict budget and because I have made a commitment to purchasing fair trade or second…

Did you know cloth napkins make great pillows? No? Well, they do. In fact, napkins make pretty much the EASIEST pillows ever. And you can buy them from your local thrift shop and give your living room a makeover in about an hour with minimal sewing. (We love minimal sewing, don’t we?) Of course, you…

I wrote but never published the following post as my last relationship was falling apart last winter. A few weeks ago, we got into a fight about going sledding. (I wanted to go; he refused.) It wasn’t actually a fight per se—we’ve never had a real fight—but it made me realize, for better or worse,…

One of the things I struggle with the most as a writer is accountability. Sure, I have goals, and I try to be organized about them, but ultimately I only have to answer to myself, and it’s easy to skive off work early when you’re your own boss. It’s even easier to tell yourself, “A…

I hated softball as a kid. Hated it. But my mom is a big Title IX fan and my dad wanted me to play so I did. Aside from one minor moment of glory (during which I slid head first into home plate thus incurring a small battle scar on my knee, which remains my…

It’s time for another confession. I promised myself that I would never again let my life revolve around a boyfriend, and I’m keeping this promise, but PIC and I are spending a lot of time together. And because he works downtown (and I live just a short subway ride from downtown), he stays over more…

Okay folks, I am fairly certain that today’s project was my most brilliant idea ever. You are all going to be super jealous, especially if you’re a girl and especially if you wear makeup and especially if you like Talenti ice cream. Shall we begin? If you’ve ever shared a bathroom with a female, you…

Sometimes I want to smack my college self. To my college self, big problems were whether or not the cute upperclassman from my Spanish class was going to sit with me in the dining hall. Big problems were getting the dean to sign off on extra credits. Big problems were lobbying for an exemption from…

If you write a blog about dating, should you tell the man you’re dating? I get this question a lot actually (especially after last Monday’s post), and my answer is always the same: YES! During my Manthropology days, I let all prospective suitors know up front, from the get go. I felt it was important,…

I’ve spent the better part of my life wondering if love is real or not. On good days, I think it’s a feeling, an emotion, an action, perhaps even a scientifically verifiable state of being if I listen to enough NPR. But on bad days, I think it’s just something we poetic types go on…

I like hardware stores but sometimes I wish they were just a bit less organized. Hear me out. One time, a while back when I was still living with my parents, my dad sent me to Lowes to pick up some mouse traps. I tried to find them without the help of a sales associate…

It’s Thursday night, about seven minutes before curtain. I know this because I’m on my way downtown to meet PIC at the Merriam Theater on Broad Street. He texts me, as we were supposed to meet at 7:15 and I’m just getting off the subway at 7:15, so I tell him I’m just 20 feet…